If you read the history of the Fairfax Police
Department on the Village of Fairfax website, you will learn that the
department was organized in 1955 and consisted of one officer. That officer
isn’t named, perhaps because of his rather tumultuous tenure in the position as
first chief of the Fairfax Police Department.
On May 4, 1958, Lonnie Auterson and his wife Juanita went
out to celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary. Auterson later explained, "I
had dinner and about four highballs and then went to see some friends. After we
left, my wife and I had a violent argument on the way home and I let her out of
the car." Around 12:30 a.m. on May 5, Silverton police saw Auterson
speeding and weaving on Montgomery Road and attempted to pull him over. He
didn’t comply and ran three traffic lights. The pursuit continued onto Stewart
Road, heading toward Madisonville. It ended when Auterson’s convertible jumped
a curb, became airborne, took out a traffic sign and some small trees, and
landed in a ditch.
Cincinnati Times-Star, May 5, 1958
When Silverton police arrived at the crash scene,
Auterson became combative and had to be handcuffed. The officers said they
could tell he had been drinking. He was transported to Our Lady of Mercy
Hospital in Mariemont with injuries to his face, head, leg, and hand. He
received around 70 stitches and was released. Silverton police charged him with
reckless driving, failing to obey a police officer’s command, and driving while
intoxicated. This was Auterson’s first arrest.
Juanita Auterson? She was located around and hour and a
half after the incident, walking on Stewart Road.
Fairfax mayor John Dinkel was hesitant to take any
disciplinary action against Auterson, saying, "Auterson has been a fine
officer and I'm not going to condemn him for one mistake. We'll wait and see
what happens at his trial." Mayor Dinkel said that a petition was being
circulated in the village to keep Auterson as police chief, but that there were
other petitions requesting that he be removed. He said that the chief had been
placed on a leave of absence due to his injuries, not because of the charges
filed against him. Patrolman Charles Doughton was named acting chief of police.
Chief Auterson was able to explain his behavior
on that night, though the explanations sound a bit unbelievable. He
admitted to drinking, but denied being drunk. He said he didn’t realize police
were chasing him because the rear window of his convertible was steamed up. He
heard the sirens, but didn’t pay attention because he was upset about the
argument with his wife. He said the crash occurred because a cigarette became
stuck between his lips and burned his fingers. He didn’t recall resisting the
officers, but said if he did it was because he was distraught over the
disagreement with his wife.
On June 21, 1958, Lonnie Auterson pleaded guilty to reckless driving and ignoring a police officer’s command, but requested a jury
trial on the driving while intoxicated charge. Sentencing on the first two
charges was deferred until there was a verdict on the driving while intoxicated
charge. When asked whether the guilty pleas could lead to Chief Auterson’s
firing, Mayor Dinkel only said, “Chief Auterson is a good chief.”
The chief’s leave of absence was extended until after his
trial and in the meantime the village council considered what to do about Auterson’s
employment status. Three council members voted to terminate Chief Auterson’s
employment and three voted against it. One newspaper account stated that Mayor
Dinkel refused to vote to break the tie and another said he voted against
termination. In any event, Lonnie Auterson wasn’t fired.
Throughout the spring and summer, Auterson’s trial was
postponed at least four times, either due to orders from his physician or
difficulty seating a jury in Silverton mayor’s court. In a meeting before 60 Fairfax residents, Mayor Dinkel said he had no intention of firing Auterson, regardless
of the outcome of the trial on the DWI charge.
On August 9, 1958, Lonnie Auterson was found not guilty
of DWI in the first jury trial in the history of Silverton mayor’s court. He
was fined $50 for each of the two charges to which he had previously pleaded
guilty. The Cincinnati Post reported that when the verdict was read, Auterson sat at the defense table with a smile on his face and "then his
pretty, dark-haired wife, Juanita, ran to his side and planted a kiss on his
cheek."
When reached for comment after the verdict, Chief
Auterson said, "My phone rang with people who wanted to congratulate me
all night Saturday and Sunday. I'm going to stay on this job now."
After the verdict, the Cincinnati Post published
an opinion piece critical of Mayor Dinkel and the three council members who
voted to retain Auterson as chief. Although the writer acknowledged that Auterson
might be a good chief and that he had suffered consequences for the charges against him, he also opined that as
a police chief Auterson should be held to a higher standard than a regular citizen.
So, Lonnie Auterson and the Fairfax Police Department
dropped out of the news, at least for a few months.
On Thursday April 23, 1959 Fairfax officers Robert
Schoonover and Charles Doughton said they were exchanging information in the
driveway of Chief Auterson’s home on Wooster Pike during a shift change.
Auterson pulled up in his personal car and demanded that Schoonover
explain what he had done that day. Schoonover said he had been quite busy and
asked Auterson what he had done. According to the officers, Auterson spent the
next several minutes disparaging the officers’ job performance and then told
Doughton to get to work.
After leaving Auterson’s house, Schoonover and Doughton
went to Mayor John Dinkel’s home to report an argument with Auterson during
which Doughton was suspended from duty. It isn’t clear from the newspaper
articles whether it was the argument that day or an earlier argument. In any
event, while at the mayor’s residence, Schoonover reported that he saw Chief
Auterson driving the police cruiser in an intoxicated condition. Schoonover
filed an affidavit charging Auterson with driving while intoxicated which was
also signed by Mayor Dinkel.
The next day, it appears that the mayor tried to downplay
the issue, saying that he had not signed an affidavit. The Cincinnati Enquirer quoted him as
saying, “Some wisecrack remark may have been made, but there’s nothing formal
been filed. I will check into the matter within the next few days. I have been
talking to the chief tonight and he thinks the whole thing is ridiculous.”
Robert Schoonover, Mayor John Dinkel, and Charles Doughton; Cincinnati Enquirer, April 25, 1959
However, Mayor Dinkel must have changed his mind pretty
quickly, because the next day he placed Chief Auterson on an indefinite leave
of absence and said he planned to meet informally with council members to
discuss whether Auterson should be dismissed. Charles Doughton was again named
acting chief. For his part, Lonnie Auterson offered to resign his position
effective May 15 if Robert Schoonover agreed to drop the charges. Schoonover
refused. 50 residents came to the Fairfax mayor’s court that evening, but were
disappointed when Auterson didn’t appear.
On April 26, the mayor announced that council would soon discuss
whether to dismiss Chief Auterson. He said he would present evidence on the
charge brought by Schoonover, but would make no recommendation on whether to
retain Auterson.
Juanita Auterson was also speaking out. She denied that
her husband was on a leave of absence, but said he was out of town on vacation
until May 15. She said that Lonnie hadn’t been drinking on April 23, but had
been visiting his sick father at Bethesda Hospital. She said that her husband,
at their own insistence, had taken a sobriety test and that the doctor who
performed the test thought it was unnecessary. When asked if her husband would
be returning to work after his vacation, Mrs. Auterson said, "Not if he
listens to me. If he does there may be a new headline in the papers - 'Wife
Shoots Chief.'"
The timing and results of the sobriety test are not
documented in any newspaper account.
On May 5, 1959, Fairfax Village Council accepted the
resignation Chief Lonnie Auterson effective May 15. In his letter sent from St.
Louis, Auterson wrote that he was resigning with regret, due to the publicity
surrounding his case. His resignation was not predicated upon Officer
Schoonover dropping the charge. On May 19, Auterson pleaded not guilty at a
hearing before a county judge and was bound over to the grand jury.
Around the same time, Robert Schoonover tendered his
resignation effective June 1. Schoonover said that since he filed the charge against
Auterson, everyone involved in the case "has only been looking out for himself. I'm a
beaten man." Mayor John Dinkel said “I hate to see him go.” Because
Schoonover failed to pursue the case against Auterson any further, the charge
was eventually dropped.
The two resignations left the department with only one
officer, Charles Doughton. Dinkel recommended making Doughton the chief, but
council turned down this proposal. Instead, council opened the position to
applicants. 10 candidates took the written test for police chief and council
narrowed the list to two applicants. However, neither applicant resided in Ohio
and Mayor Dinkel advised council that a police chief must live in the state for
at least one year prior to appointment. The mayor and council did appoint a new
police officer for the department at the August 18, 1959 council meeting,
though.
Support for Charles Doughton to become permanent police
chief was gaining steam around the village. Hundreds of residents signed
petitions in support of Doughton. Residents were also becoming concerned about
police protection and slow response time, particularly since school would be
starting soon. Despite support from the mayor and many residents, council chose
not to make Doughton the chief. Charles Doughton resigned from the Fairfax
Police Department effective January 1, 1960, saying “Council is trying to run
the Police Department which is officially the job of the mayor.”
Ultimately, 55-year-old retired Cincinnati Police
lieutenant James Finan was named as the second chief of the Fairfax Police Department
effective January 5, 1960. He served as chief for the next decade, during which
he headed the investigations into three of the most difficult cases in our
village’s history – the kidnapping and murder of 4-year-old Debbie Dappen, the
disappearance of 9-year-olds Johnny Hundley and Jimmy McQueary, and the murder
of service station attendant Troy Lee Carr.
As far as I can tell, both Lonnie Auterson
and Robert Schoonover left police work after the 1959 incident. Both men died
fairly young, Auterson in 1978 at the age of 51 and Schoonover in 1975 at the
age of 45. Charles Doughton was hired as a patrolman for the Mariemont Police
Department and left the department as a lieutenant over 20 years later.
Sources
Cincinnati Enquirer, various dates, 3/12/1951 - 12/28/1959; 3/20/1978
Cincinnati Post, various dates, 11/14/1955 - 1/6/1960
Ancestry.com. U.S. School Yearbooks, 1900-1999 [database online]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2010
(Detailed sources available upon request.)
